Buildings with Snowbank, Cliffside, New Jersey

By 1928, Marin had fully developed his mature style, and this Cliffside, New Jersey subject shows him applying it to a specifically American urban landscape. The buildings and snowbank are rendered in the fragmented, dynamic brushwork that distinguishes his oil paintings of the 1920s, where recognizable subject matter and semi-abstract handling coexist in productive tension. The snowbank provides a horizontal counterpoint to the vertical buildings, and the whole composition vibrates with the energy that Marin found in the American built environment.

Marin painted in New Jersey throughout his career, finding in its modest landscapes and small towns the same dynamic energy that other artists sought in New York City. Cliffside, with its combination of natural features (the cliff, the snow) and man-made structures (the buildings), provided a perfect subject for Marin's dual commitment to landscape and urban painting.

Buildings with Snowbank is Marin's New Jersey at its most dynamic: the collision of natural and man-made forms, rendered in the fragmented brushwork that makes his 1920s oils among the most energetic paintings in American art.